Yeah. Regardless of what the rankings and endorsements may say, Sharapova is no longer an elite player. The shoulder injury messed her up more than most of us realized. I doubt she will ever win another Grand Slam event, although the TV people will continue to give her the star treatment, for the same reasons they did so with Anna Kournikova years ago.

Yeah. Regardless of what the rankings and endorsements may say, Sharapova is no longer an elite player. The shoulder injury messed her up more than most of us realized. I doubt she will ever win another Grand Slam event, although the TV people will continue to give her the star treatment, for the same reasons they did so with Anna Kournikova years ago.

Click to expand...

Dunno. She just won Tokyo in October which is one title more than Anna had her entire career. Really she should’ve played Brisbane, but played South American, Hua Hin and Hong Kong exos instead. Normally that would be fine since she plays HK every year, but this was first year since 2004 she didn’t play the YEC. (Excluding 2008 post surgery.) So she hadn’t played a competitive match since October. The good thing is that it wasn’t the serve breaking down velocity wise this time. It just looked like normal rust from not playing important points and rust off the ground. She needs to play more tennis, but can’t play so much she reinjures her shoulder. Tough balancing act.

But I really like Kirilenko. She’s a nice player and I can never figure out why she just can’t put it together, other than lack of power, lack of confidence and recurring knee injuries. Last year before the US Open Adidas finally took the Stella line from her and gave it to Caro. That demotion seemed to motivate her a bit and she played well for a while. Hopefully last year’s US Open run and this win run will give her some confidence going into this season.

Thank goodness for the Belgians are back. Horrible draw for both though. I don’t know who will get out of that Group of Death Quarter: Kim/ Justine/ Elena/ Sveta/ Wickmayer/ Pennetta/ Nadia/ Pavs/ Dokic/ Rezai/ Kleybanova. 3 multiple slam winners. 7 current/former top 10 players and at least two future top 10 player in Pavs and Wickmayer. Four Belgians. That quarter could be a half.

Wickmayer squeaks by 10-8 in the 3rd after 3 qualifier matches. So now the Pennetta at No. 12 faces No. 16 in the SECOND round. Rematch of the Auckland final. Horrible luck for both. Unless she’s fatigued from qualifying Wickmayer should get through that one.

Watching Justine on now ESPN360 and it's back on serve. It looks like Flipkins is picking up where she left off in their exo. She played well there too. Not intimidated at all. Justine should pull through though.

One of the commentators said Sharapova just signed a 8 year $70 million deal with Nike. They gotta be just thrilled with this.

Click to expand...

I think those big-money contracts should come with a "If you lose before the third round, your commercials don't air and you don't get paid." Ala the Andy Roddick commercials a few years back when he lost early right when his commercials were starting to air during the entire U.S.Open.